Philip M. Giraldi

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests.

Leader of the Free World: Imperial Hubris Redefined

There is no rational US interest that compels a hubristic American government to establish a space military or to create a global sanction against Iran.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
A float depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un parades during the Nice carnival, Feb. 17, 2018, in Nice, southeastern France. The Carnival celebrates this year the "King of Space." Claude Paris | AP

There have been two developments in the past month that illustrate clearly what is wrong with the White House’s perception of America’s place in the world. Going far beyond the oft-repeated nonsense that the United States is somehow the “leader of the free world,” the Trump Administration has taken several positions that sustain the bizarre view

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How Washington’s Spinelessness Enables Israel’s Brutality

The question of the relationship with Israel comes at a time when everyone in America is concerned about children being separated from their parents, it’s a funny thing that Israeli abuse and even killing of Arab children is not met with the same opprobrium.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
Israel Palestine Jewish settler

I have just spent a couple of days in New York City. Returning to Virginia on Wednesday morning, I had a somewhat strange experience. I cleared through my emails before leaving the hotel and also read through a number of the featured news articles. One, in particular, caught my eye. It described how the Democratic Party primary in Queens New York

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The United States Withdraws from the World

The U.S. withdrawal from U.N. agencies is, if anything, a sign of weakness rather than strength.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
UN Human Rights Council

The United States has decided to no longer participate in the United Nations 47-member Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The number one reason cited by U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was that the council is unfairly critically focused on Israel. The United States had already left the U.N.’s cultural organization UNESCO last October, the last straw

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MEK Money Can’t Buy Love – but It Can Buy a Lot of Politicians

Iran’s radical Marxist cult, the MEK, is reminiscent of the Israel Lobby’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee but is able to punch well beyond its weight by manipulating American politicians.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
John Bolton, second left, with Maryam Rajavi, former leader of the MEK, pictured right, in Albania at a 2017 Nowruz celebration. (Photo: Siavosh Hosseini/NurPhoto)

Iran’s radical Marxist cult Mohajedeen e Khalq, better known by its acronym MEK, is somewhat reminiscent of the Israel Lobby’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in that it operates somewhat in the shadows and is nevertheless able to punch well beyond its weight by manipulating politicians and understanding how American government

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Congress Fails to Discover Collusion to Subvert the 2016 Election — Again

There are daily newspaper reports explaining how Mueller’s noose is tightening around Trump, though no one quite explains how that is so. What is clear is that Trump is an immoral man and that a lot of his friends were engaged in activity that might be described as sleazy. But sleazy does not equate to a deliberate attempt to fix a national election and subvert the Constitution of the United States of America.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi

There have been a number of developments in the endless inquiry into possible collusion between the Russian government and Donald Trump to manipulate perceptions and voting relating to the two presidential candidates in the November 2016 election. In particular, it has been alleged that the Russians were, with the connivance of some in the Trump

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Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy: Made in Israel?

The real Donald Trump has emerged as a dedicated supporter of the most hardline elements in Israel, whose aspirations are fueled by the money flowing from American Israel-first billionaires.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the 2016 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference at the Verizon Center, on Monday, March 21, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

It was refreshing to hear then aspirant to the GOP nomination for president Donald Trump tell a gathering of Republican Jews in New York City that he didn't need their money. It was, of course, a lie, like so many other lies that came out of the electoral campaign, but it seemed to open the door on a new era for American foreign policy. Combined

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70 Years of Disinformation: CIA Funded Opinion Magazines in Europe

Cold War disinformation operations run by the CIA took the form of clandestinely placing stories in the media that were clearly untrue but designed to shift public perceptions.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
The Paris Review

When an intelligence agency arranges to disseminated fake news it is called “disinformation” and it is a subset of what is referred to as covert action, basically secret operations run in a foreign country to influence opinion or to disrupt the functioning of a government or group that is considered to be hostile. During the Cold War,

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